UP as in Upper Peninsula (#20 Michigan)

After the Air Force museum we headed back to the airport.  Dayton is an air carrier airport so you would think that it would be busy.  The reality was that inbound we were number one and same with outbound.  This flight was pretty routine. We departed and only had a slight vector.  We were cleared to 9000 expeditiously and then we were on our way direct.  Other than a strong crosswind landing at Pellston Michigan, it was basically a straight line.

I was a bit surprised by the lower UP (upper peninsula).  Ohio had been flat tan square farmland. and crossing into Michigan, it was more of the same.  To be fair my impression of Michigan was tainted by visiting Detroit.  The lower UP is a lush hilly green. It is dotted with lakes and has a quaint feel.  The weather was also great, I don’t think I would like it as much with feet of snow though.

So what's with the lower upper peninsula? Michigan is non contiguous. The top of what most people think if Michigan is a peninsula with lake Michigan on the West and Lake Huron on the right. Above this is a second peninsula connected by a bridge that borders lake Superior as well as the other two. So you end up with an Upper Peninsula and a lower upper peninsula, confusing...

We arrived to Cadillac (I had reserved the mid size) which was ironic because this was the best car rental deal of the trip.  We headed down to Petosky which is on the shore of Lake Michigan.  We had booked the Courtyard and scored with a room that had a nice view, including the lake.  It’s a cool little town and it has a river running through it.  We took a nice walk before dinner and enjoyed the greenway trails.  We even saw some deer.  They were a bit skittish of humans but we stood still and they walked by us while chewing on the vegetation.  Now I know what happens to the flowers we plant.

Weather permitting, we planned to visit Mackinac island in the morning.  The wind was looking like it might be an issue but I studied the charts, airport information and then got some sleep.  The morning was grey but the winds were going to be favorable earlier in the day.  The runway is 3500’ which has some margin but I didn’t want to have a 20 knot direct crosswind on arrival with the shorter length.

We drove to the airport and prepped the plane.  It’s a short flight, 21 miles.  Basically climb to 1500 AGL and pull the power way back, prepare to land.  We joined the left downwind for 26 and were soon on the ground.  Parking is pretty steep at $25 just to land and another $25 for each overnight.  It does cap at $125 for each week.

Mackinac island is special because they have no cars.  This is apparently the big draw.  First off let me say it is a lie.  There are a few vehicles, we saw them.  They are for emergency services, landscaping and things like the electric company. Instead of cars they use horse drawn trucks or carriages for most things.  This all sounds quaint until you walk down the road with piles of manure.  It was cool and with the breeze, not too smelly but I imagine July is less pleasant. You can walk or call a horse cab.  As we had been eating well for the trip so far, we decided to walk.

Our first stop was skull cave which is a neat name but pretty underwhelming.  I thought it had some bloody past but it is just a feature left over from freezing water.

The next sight was Arch Rock.  It was pretty cool but it was surrounded by clouds of mosquitoes (I later learned these were not mosquitos but rather midge flies).  I think they were thick enough to paint on my radar.

After the Arch, we walked down to town.  It is cute but, it is basically a bunch of touristy stores.  CC had been told that they had the best fudge in the world and we should get some.  Every 3rd business was a sweets shop but they were mostly repeats of the same store.  We saw at least 5 copies of one outlet.  As for keeping the modern world out, they are losing that battle, there is a Starbucks on Mainstreet.

When planning the trip, I had thought it might be fun to overnight on the island but the accommodations looked only so-so.  Also they were extremely expensive.  In the end we both agreed it was good that we skipped the overnight.  The small town we chose was much nicer, has more to do and less bugs.

To be fair we did skip the local fort and some other recommended sights.  I can’t say we saw it all but we saw enough.  We strolled back to the airport after main street and we’re soon airborne and headed back to civilization.  If you take the ferry you can pay extra to see the Mackinac Bridge.  I included this for CC at no extra charge.

Back at Pellston they had saved our space but another plane blocked the easy taxi approach.  They radioed that they would push me back if needed.  The twin while bigger gives you some advantage when turning.  I angled in, being careful to keep my left wing well clear of the fence and then used the left engine to spin around.  

I got lined up and was only about a foot forward of the perfect alignment.  The line guy said good enough so chocks went in and we were done.  On the way back to the hotel we stopped at DQ for blizzards.  Had to replace all the calories we just walked off.

Fly - Fight - Win (#21 Ohio)

I did not make much progress last year on my quest to visit the lower 48 with our plane.  I only added one new state.  I was ambitious this year and had planned to grab a few out West in February  but scrubbed that trip in due to terrible weather and our Yosemite being closed for a few weeks.  So it was good to be back in the air and going new places.

We were headed up to Dayton Ohio.  It’s 588 miles and with the headwinds it was going to be 3:40 in the air.  That was a bit long so we decided to add a fuel stop.  London Kentucky was 2:30 which was a good first hop.  Going to bed, it looked like an easy flight with no real weather.  

Sunday morning it looked much worse.  London was 400 overcast and there was a large area of rain headed towards the field.  Undeterred, I planned some alternates but felt the rain would miss to the South and that the weather would clear.  We still got to experience the clouds on our way.

Our flight through Georgia and over the corner of South Carolina was smooth with the expected headwinds. Crossing the mountains we ran into some building clouds.  ATC was generous with deviations which helped a great deal. The clouds looked dark ahead and my radar was painting some light rain.  XM and ATC had nothing.  I thought it might be ground clutter from the terrain but tilting up did not clear it. 

We zipped through some light green and sure enough they were wet clouds.  As we worked our way North, a darker cloud appeared and it looked pretty mean.  We dodged around but again neither ATC or XM detected it.  Another reason to make sure you don’t blast through blindly.

The ride over the mountains was bumpy but North of Knoxville things smoothed out.  Indianapolis center got us set up on the GPS 6. We were solid turning final but just after the FAF (final approach fix) we popped out and made a smooth touchdown.

Lately gas has been higher than advertised as prices are updated with a delay. Today I was pleasantly surprised, it was 25 cents lower than expected.  After a quick turn we were back on our way with just over an hour to Dayton.  We slid just East of Cincinnati and I was expecting to be vectored out farther like they do around Charlotte or Orlando.  Surprisingly, we got direct.  

Arriving at Dayton, we were parked up front and our car was pulled right to the plane.  We placed our fuel order and headed to our hotel.  With the late sunset, we had time to visit a local park and hike by the Miami river.

Our real reason for choosing Dayton was to visit the National Museum of the United States Air Force. We had two reasons to visit the museum.  The obvious one is that it’s an amazing collection.  Less obvious is that Cecilia’s father donated some artifacts from the first Operation Deep Freeze (flights to Antarctica). He had flown as a navigator on the first one. He also provided other material from the Berlin Airlift and other missions which he had participated.  We were going to see if they were curating these artifacts correctly.

We all know the mottos like Semper Fi or Semper Paratus for the Marines and Coast Guard. I had assumed that the Air Force had it's own Latin motto. I was wrong, their motto is English, Fly - Fight - Win, pretty direct and to the point.

Monday morning we headed over and arrived as the museum opened.  It is huge with 4 large hangars.  When I say large, I mean a B-52 or B36 looks small inside. It’s also free or really just pre paid by our taxes.  They have halls devoted to early flight, WW2, Korea, Vietnam, X planes, Presidential transport and much much more.  

We knew we did not have time to read everything so we mostly strolled and looked at the planes and went education lite.  We did ask about operation deep freeze and a helpful docent told us where we might look.  In the back of the last hall there was a small exhibit on Air Force peacetime efforts.  And there we found an informative sign.  Maybe not a complete record of her dad's service but close enough for government work.

Another Soggy Return (The reason I train so much)

When we departed for DC, the trip home was forecast to be easy with good VFR weather until near home and then the chance of marginal VFR. I had been tracking the weather each day and the forecasts were changing each time I looked and not for the better. I was not obsessing for 2 reasons. First, I couldn’t do much about it and second, none of the forecast presented any real problem…

By Saturday afternoon, it looked like the forecasts had been way off.  We would have much lower clouds and more rain than the early guesses. The low pressure offshore would create a classic Nor'easter with strong winds from 030.  The issue is that runway 5 has no approaches so the likely active, 32 would have a strong crosswind.  I filed for an 11 AM departure via the ARSNL5.GVE departure. This was based on past experience and some advice from local pilots. 

Lots of rain between us and home on Saturday but it was moving East quickly.  Heading off to sleep, the rain was moving out of the way but the clouds were still forecast to be low in the morning. I was thinking that by mid day most of North Carolina would be VFR and maybe even some of South Carolina. The arrival home would likely be IFR but nothing too bad with ceilings better than 500 and good visibility.

Checking weather at 8AM the front had moved through and the storms were South and East of our track.  That was the good news.  The less good news, there were low clouds starting in North Carolina and extending through Florida.  Our home field was 700 overcast, not great but not a big deal, we could even circle to avoid the 25+ knot crosswind.

By the time we headed to the airport at 10, home had gone to 400 overcast with rain.  Now the rain had moved off everywhere except right over our destination.  I figured it would clear by the time we arrived but started thinking about crosswinds and diversions just in case.

Startup and departure were smooth.  As expected we got the expected departure but were to climb via until 2000 then stay put.  Of course once we checked in, the controller just sent us on our way and we had a mostly unrestricted climb to 8000.  We even had a tailwind.  DC had been cold overnight and it was in the 20s at altitude but we were warm, the heater was flawless, the last trip was well worth it.

We cruised South with a TAS of 190-191 knots and 205-212 ground speed.  As you can see we went from clear to progressively not clear.  I kept watching the weather reports waiting for the 400 to improve.  The airport 6 miles North East of home went to 1300 but Craig stuck at 400, with worse visibility and rain.  The one saving grace was that the 70 degree crosswind was just 19 gusting 25 and not more.

I have shot the GPS 32 more times than I can count but I briefed it twice, this was for real, we also discussed the miss scenario.  Cecil just across the river had better weather and the wind right down the runway.  If we missed, we would head there, get gas and re-evaluate our options.   We had left behind the clear skies and had been in and out of the clouds once we passed Savannah but very little rain, just some occasional light mist.

JAX approach gave us direct JEVAG, the IF about 30 miles out and then a vector, there was a jet ahead of us on the approach and I started monitoring the tower to see how they did.  The approach controller must have been distracted as he gave me a late turn to intercept final.  He then amended it to continue the turn onto final.  With the crosswind blowing us South, we ended up about a half dot left coming out of the turn but that was easily corrected.  

Crossing ADERR, the FAF the rain and turbulence picked up and we had a over 20 degrees wind correction.  Gear was down, approach flaps set and we continued down.  The jet had reported the runway at 600 so I was hoping that we would have the same luck.  CC had been briefed that the runway would be to our left and not straight ahead.  I started calling out height to minimums as we passed 1260, 1000 to go.

600 came and went with nothing and down we went.  Minimums were 260 today due to a NOTAM so we were getting close.  I was still on the gauges or in today's world the flat panel when CC acquired the runway right at 500.  I looked up and saw it too, I was expecting it to be clearer based on the reported visibility but with the rain visibility was around 1.5 miles.  I made a novice mistake of relaxing the crab a bit and started to drift left but soon locked back on the centerline.  I added full flaps, kept some extra speed for the gusts and had my hands full with the turbulence.  The crosswind was interacting with the tree line making the last few feet sprightly.

I was concerned with the wet runway and the crosswind and the fact that others before me had slid off the edges or the end.  We touched down smoothly, upwind wheel first.  Wet runways make everything softer.  I knew the wind would help me slow and I used a combination of left rudder and right engine to keep straight.  the right aileron was fully deflected up as I ever so gingerly used the brakes not wanting to slide on the rather slick pavement.

We made the 3000' turn off and taxied in slowly.  The real challenge was getting the plane in the hangar with the cold blowing rain.  It was a great trip and while I like the challenge of these types of approaches and enjoy the training, I think I would have been happier with a calm sunny day.  The plane did get a wash and we even stayed a few extra minutes to wipe her down so I didn't get water spotted.  

Life is a Cabaret

When we landed Thursday it was close to 90 degrees out, walking back from the play that night it was down to 60. Luckily we had remembered Jackets. So that front we had raced had come through and  dumped a bunch of rain just before the show, it was then supposed to leave.  But it decided to hang around and drip on us Friday morning.  Should have been a hint that the forecasts were all wrong.  We braved the rain and walked down to the Air and Space Museum where I had reserved some entry passes, it still is being refurbished so it is only half of the museum.

The Air and Space is always fun but the experience changes.  As a child when I visited, I dreamed of some day flying a plane. This visit I had flown my plane to get there, so it was a different perspective.  I also knew most of the exhibits without reading the labels.   After finishing we hopped over to the natural history museum, Samantha wanted us to look at the rocks, must be a civil engineering thing.

The combination of the holiday weekend, spring break and the rain had made the museum a zoo. They do have some nice rocks like the Hope diamond and other jewelry. They also had some massive Crystals and other colored rocks. We decided to head out and get some coffee and then took a nice stroll through the city.

We did drop in on the national Portrait Gallery. It’s a cool building (Atrium below) and I enjoyed the Presidential Gallery the most. They had all the presidents along with some history for each. The early Presidents had it good, without photography, they could have the artist depict them as they wished. Sorta like early Instagram filters. We picked up some nice Sushi for dinner and then being the favored candidate for Father of the Year, we went to the play a second night and Samantha again stole the show, you didn't see that coming.

We met Samantha the next morning so she could shop her local farmers market. I am all for farm to table but the apples were more than twice the cost at Safeway so you sorta wonder if it’s a great model of efficiency.

After shopping we were off for a hike. Samantha had chosen Great Falls park. It’s an easy fall, it was a longer walk from the car to the visitor center than on to the falls. They have 3 fall views and they tell you that they get better the further you go.

My personal opinion was that view 2 was the best.  Not only did we have the water to watch, there were some kayakers running the falls and providing some great entertainment.  After the viewing, we headed out for a hike, Sam said the river trail was 30 minutes and really flat. We need to work on her definition of flat and her perception of time.  It was rather rocky and close to an hour.

After the hike we grabbed some ice cream and then it was back to town where we helped her with some chores and I started looking at our way home. I was not liking what I was seeing.  The good weather we had been promised by the forecasters had a big asterisk.

Traffic Jam

I am working on father of the year so I can’t miss any school events, especially a play. Back in February my daughter mentioned she would be the school play. When she was young these things were easy, drive down the street and sit a bit.  Now that she's in Law school, it takes a bit more effort.  

Regardless, I grabbed a hotel room in DC and penciled the event onto the calendar. The trip is only about 560nm or 3 hours in Baron time so off we went to see a play.  The production was done by the Georgetown Gilbert and Sullivan Society. It is apparently the only theatre group in the country with its own law school. 

This was their 50th year and they had chosen Cabaret. Samantha was playing Sally Bowles, a British flapper swept up in the 1930 Berlin party scene. Tragically the party is ending with the rise of the Nazi party, yeah it's not a fun light play.

Really wanting to be at the play puts extra pressure on the flight. This is also not the easiest time of year for the trip. We have been enjoying a steady stream of strong frontal systems pushing across the country. I couldn’t do much about the weather but I did stack the deck a bit.  First I bought tickets to two nights of the show so if we were delayed, we could still see the show. We also cleared Wednesday in case we needed to get ahead of any weather. With backup plans in place I planned our flights and started watching the weather.  

There was a strong front moving in but forecasts had it arriving after 2PM. The weather at home was nice but the mid part of the flight would be low IFR in the morning. Balancing these two factor, I chose to depart around 9:45. In theory this would get us in ahead of the rain and allow the fog to burn off.  The flight home would be easy though or so I thought at the time.

Preflight and packing the plane were uneventful and I soon had the props spinning. 5/23 was closed and 14 was active. As I pulled out of the hangar row and turned towards the taxiway, I was greeted by a line of planes more suitable to Newark.  We received our clearance and joined the conga line. At one point I counted 18 planes waiting to depart. We joined at position 12 I believe. The controllers did a nice job and even with the line and several arrivals, we were on our way in 15 minutes.

The flight up the coast was smooth and we soon started planning our arrival for a fuel stop. The weather had been 1000 overcast at 9:30 but by the time we arrived it was just scattered at 3000. That was over the field though. It was more broken to the South, so I requested the RNAV 05 and was cleared for the approach. Just after passing the FAF, I broke out and cancelled IFR.

We got a quick turn from the staff at Harnett Jetport, in Erwin NC. They are under a major rebuild so the ramp was a mess but even so they did a great job getting us turned and on our way.  The second leg to DC was smooth and easy. Our clearance was waiting for us and though we had a deviation to avoid some restricted airspace, we were soon direct Manassas and cleared to land. The APP jet center helped us with our stuff. We not only had our luggage but had hauled up more stuff for my daughter.

While we avoided the weather on the trip, while grabbing a quick dinner the storms arrived. Luckily they were mostly done by the time we finished and we headed over to the play. I can say totally unbiased, Samantha was the best and she rocked the role.